Modeling hydrologic responses using multi-site and single-site rainfall generators in a semi-arid watershed
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School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of ArizonaIssue Date
2021
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Zhao, Y., Nearing, M. A., & Guertin, D. P. (2021). Modeling hydrologic responses using multi-site and single-site rainfall generators in a semi-arid watershed. International Soil and Water Conservation Research.Rights
Copyright © 2021 International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation, China. Water&PowerPress. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.Collection Information
This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
Hydrologic response in a watershed is driven by precipitation. Multi-site rainfall generators can be used to model watersheds using spatially varied rainfall inputs to better analyze how the rainfall variability affects runoff generation. This study adopted both a single-site rainfall generator (CLIGEN) and a multi-site rainfall generator to generate two rainfall data sequences, which were then used to drive the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) for runoff simulation. The 148-km2 Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed and its two sub-watersheds were selected to evaluate the hydrologic response. Runoff calibration was done against measured runoff in the watershed. Statistics showed that the single-site and multi-site rainfall generators gave similar results regarding annual precipitation. However, the multi-site generator performed much better than the single-site generator in both mean summer flow and for the different return period flows. The runoff derived from the single-site generator was significantly over-estimated in all three watersheds. As for the multi-site generator, the derived runoff was satisfactorily predicted in the smaller watersheds but only overestimated in the largest watershed. This indicated that in small to medium sized watersheds, the spatial variability of rainfall could play an important role for hydrologic response because of the heterogeneity of convective rainfall in this semi-arid region, which makes the application of multi-site rainfall generator a better option than the single-site generator. © 2021 International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation, China Water & Power PressNote
Open access journalISSN
2095-6339Version
Final published versionae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1016/j.iswcr.2021.09.003
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Copyright © 2021 International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation, China. Water&PowerPress. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.